The present invention relates to an accessory device such as a flash device that is mounted to an accessory shoe provided in an image-pickup apparatus.
Many image-pickup apparatuses such as digital still cameras and video cameras are equipped with an accessory shoe, on which an accessory device such as a flash device can be detachably mounted. Allowing for the image-pickup in the rain or near water with such an accessory device mounted to the accessory shoe, a drip-proof structure has to be provided around the accessory shoe.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9(1997)-211562 discloses such a drip-proof structure around the accessory shoe in a camera, for example. In this drip-proof structure, a packing is attached to a flat base portion of a shoe provided in the flash device, so that when the shoe of the flash device is assembled with the accessory shoe of the camera, the packing fills the gap around terminals so as to prevent the intrusion of rainwater or the like.
The accessory shoe with the drip-proof structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9(1997)-211562, however, has a totally different configuration from an accessory shoe that has been used conventionally for cameras and accessory devices. For that reason, the disclosed accessory shoe is not compatible with the cameras and the accessory devices provided with the conventional accessory shoe. When a conventional camera or accessory device is used, a special adaptor has to be prepared, which is inconvenient for users.